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Tenants evacuated after Toronto house collapse still can’t go home

Six tenants were ordered from their Little Italy apartments when an adjoining house partially collapsed. It may be months before they can go back.

Tenants on the other side of a semi that partly collapsed last week have not been allowed back in, and have learned it may be months before the house is sufficiently stabilized to be safe. (RANDY RISLING / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

Six tenants at 292 Roxton Rd. were ordered out of their apartments on April 16 around 11:30 p.m. as the back of the three-storey house next door, which was undergoing major renovations, crumbled.

Tenant Jenna Oldham said she returned home shortly before midnight to find the street packed with fire trucks and police cruisers.

A firefighter accompanied her into her unit to get her cat. As she emerged, emergency workers were taping off both the building housing her apartment and the crumpled home next door at 290 Roxton Rd.

No one has been allowed in since.

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Oldham has stayed with friends and family, dishing out an estimated $1,000 in the past week on clothes, toiletries, all the necessities she left behind.

“All I had was what I went to work with,” said Oldham, who lived on Roxton Rd. for about 11 years. “It’s just everything. You don’t really think about what you need until you don’t have it.”

It was a week before they got any indication of when they might be able to go home.

“No one was able to give any timeline of any sort,” Oldham said. “Everything’s so up in the air, we just don’t know how long everything’s going to be.”

On Wednesday this week, Oldham said her landlady told the tenants it could be four to six months before the building is safe again.

Both the city and the provincial Ministry of Labour are investigating the collapse.

Mario Angelucci, Toronto’s deputy chief building official, said preliminary engineering reports indicate that the foundations of the home at 290 Roxton Rd. will need stabilization work and then “probably extensive” demolition.

Another engineer is combing through Oldham’s building to determine whether it’s structurally sound. It may also need remedial work.

There’s no telling how long it will take.

“We will be moving it along as quickly as possible, but also we need to make sure it’s done properly and safely,” said Angelucci. “I can’t give a time frame, hopefully sooner rather than later, but it has to be safe.”

Ontario’s Ministry of Labour also issued a stop-work order on the buildings.

“We have to be satisfied the place is safe for workers to return to,” said spokesperson Bruce Skeaff.

Oldham is hoping someone will reimburse the expenses tenants have incurred.

“Somebody has to take care of all this extra money I’ve had to put out for a situation I didn’t have any control over,” said Oldham. “It’s just not fair that I have to pocket it.”

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